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Samsung Selects Solve for Tomorrow Winners

• By Leila Meyer
• 03/27/14

Samsung has selected the grand prizes winners of its Solve for Tomorrow contest. The five winning schools will be honored in a ceremony in Washington, DC on April 30, and they each receive approximately $140,000 in technology products from Samsung, the Adobe Foundation and DirecTV, including smart boards, LED TVs and laptops.

The Samsung Solve for Tomorrow contest was created "to raise enthusiasm for science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education among U.S. public school students," according to the company.

The Solve for Tomorrow grand prize winners include:

• G.W. Carver Middle School in Miami, FL, for its project, "Old Smokey's Dirty Secret," about student analysis of soil tests from a former garbage incinerator site near the school grounds;
• East Valley High School in Yakima, WA, for "Cooling off a Region," about reducing energy consumption in the summer by creating an energy-efficient cooling system;
• Sunburst Jr. High School in Sunburst, MT, for "Blowing Away Alkali," about tackling the alkali problem in the community;
• Oliver Street School in Newark, NJ, for "Guarding the Water Supply," about preventing garbage from entering the local sewer system and waterways; and
• The Academy at Palumbo in Philadelphia, PA, for "Finding the Safest Route," about planning safe and efficient routes for students to travel to and from school.

The contest kicked off in August 2013 and progressed through several stages:

• Each of the more than 2,300 schools that entered the contest submitted an essay about how STEM can help their community;
• The original entries were narrowed down to 255 state finalists, five from each state plus D.C., and each of them received Samsung Galaxy Tabs;
• One winning entry was selected from each state and D.C., and each state winner received a camcorder, laptop and Adobe editing software to create a video for the final phase of the contest;
• Fifteen national finalists presented their projects at SXSWedu in Austin; and
• The five grand prize winners were selected.

G.W. Carver won the Community Choice Award with nearly 11,000 public online votes; East Valley High School won the Samsung Employee Ambassador Choice Award; and the other three winners were chosen by a panel of judges at the SXSWedu national finals.

Further information about the Samsung Solve for Tomorrow contest and winners can be found on Samsung's site.